Growing up watching Maradona, I closed the book of the best footballer ever. Then came some great footballer (Marco van basten, Zidane, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, .... Etc) but they were never to the level of Diego. Well until Messi came and then he shuffled the deck. First of all, I consider myself very blessed to be able to watch Messi play, he is truly a complete player in every sense of the word. Most of the greats, are either a great goal scorers, dribblers, or both. In the case of Messi, he is a great scorer, dribbler and best of all, a fantastic passer (assists) which you can't say of other greats. His splitting passes are absolutely out of this world and that's to me where he is sets himslef apart. As for the world cup argument, remember in the 80s and early 90s, no offense to other teams, but truly only 4 teams were real contenders (Brazil, Argentina, Germany and Italy), there rest were not teams contending for the cup. Argentina was a great team, and when Maradona was added they had the X-factor (the differentiator). Right now, Argentina is not considered a real contender with emergence of other good teams (spain, netherlands, england, ....). On the other hands, one thing that Maradona did which was fantastic, is taking a weak Napoli club from being a doormat to brilliance, but that doesn't take anything out of Messi.

Again, I feel blessed to be able to watch the magic of soccer through the current crop of top players, but after all is said and done, Messi in my books will be in the best 2 football players circle ever to lace them up.

Enough arguing, let's all go back to watch some magic football

[account-removed]4 years ago

Agree with everything apart from putting England along side Spain and Netherlands.... Lol England are no where near as good as those two sides

Neymar is still a kid and finally got a taste of european football He should get out of his comfort zone in brazil and take his game to a new level, he definitely has the talent and skill. People should also stop hating on him, he played against the strongest team in the world, even cristiano ronaldo couldn't do anything against barca so give the guy a break. Neymar is quite humble and isn't like pele.... Pele is just continually talking out of his ass.... I'd love to see how good pele would be in current football

The Pele comment is so irrelevant, god I have to call you out for it. You my friend are talking out your ass. How can you compare modern football to the football that was played during the 50's and 60's? It was a completely different game. It's like comparing a kid to a full grown adult. The football back then was so much more open and fluid, today it's a million times more tactical and athletes are much more physically fit. For his time, Pele was a genius, as Messi is a genius of today's game

- Great win. Loved to watch, Xavi's control on that pass before the first is awesome.

- It's not a treble. We have a double from last season, and three more titles since summer but "treble" includes domestic cup. Well, it could be worse.

- Cut Neymar some slack but not Pelé. Except for the haircut Neymar looks like a very decent kid to me, trying to build up a good career with the talent he knows he has, taking things as slowly as possible and staying in Brazil. And then there is this old moron who was an awesome player in his time but has no compunction about using a 19-year-old to make a (effing stupid) point about Brazil vs. Argentina, South America vs. Europe and blah. It's obvious to everyone, Neymar himself included, how much truth there is to this statement. What I find offensive about it is not that it's blatantly dumb but that Pelé knows too much about football and what this kind of hype can do to a young player to say sh#t like that before such an important match. But dude always puts his ego first

For me personally on technical ability, skill, vision, ability to change a game he is up there with diego, who most people consider the best ever, and at just 24 could become better. I think the only thing that holds messi back is that he hasn't won a world cup yet, the argument that he needs iniesta and xavi is ridiculous, he had more assists than any barca player last season, ans we have all seen with our own eyes his incredible individual goals. I'm actiually just about old enough to remember Maradonna, and for me messi is more exciting to watch, but if he dosen't win a world cup, people will not give him the title as the best ever

4 years ago

Cristiano Ronaldo is better than Pele which automatically makes Messi and Diego better. I wonder how many of his goals were offside hahaha

But you know when the Ronaldo from Brazil was in his prime everybody was saying he's the best ever, same as zidane, and ronaldinho, Diego and Pele so there is no such thing as the best ever within 10 years another quality player as Messi or Ronaldinho will emerge I'm telling you bro! But as for now without a doubt Messi is the best and whoever denies it you must be a damn fool loll11

Murda 1 your wright in what you say, but to be honest even all the players you mentioned, who where all special players, for me there's just something magical about messi, he seems to keep the ball in impossible situations, there are times where ye don't even see messi when he's surrounded by three four players, but he always seems to come out the other side, and ye just sit there trying to figure out how he still has the ball, that's what diego was great at. But when it comes to vision and passing I honestly believe messi has diego beaten. As I said I personally think as an individual player he could become the best ever, but unless he wins a world cup, he will never get that honor from most of the footballing world. But I guess is there any point trying to pick a best ever, maybe we should just enjoy what where alive to see

Messi isn't enough of a threat from distance and doesn't have a unique style of play. Those two attributes that make it very difficult for us to be so hasty as to consider him better than [C.] Ronaldo or Ronaldinho. I don't think messi can claim that title.... Yet

PortYoder and peletutu your arguments are well, terrible and sound like something that came out of the mouths of 11 year olds. I'm sorry if I sound like a dick, but it's almost like you haven't heard of messi until about 3 hours ago. Messi has scored plenty of goals from distance, and I would say he's pretty unique considering there is nobody playing football the way he is, is the step-over unique, lol, I see plenty of players doin that. And messi dosen't make defenders suffer, I would 99. 9 % of the footy fans would disagree with you.come on dudes your entitled to your opinion, but at least let it make some sense

@Jazze LOL Messi the best ever. Please no chance. Lets be honest Barcelona is taylor made for Messi, and Barcelona is not the hardest team to play for (he's the only player allowed to truly dribble on a passing team). Diego a man who single handly one the world cup, and then a player to go to Serie A (what was a truly great league, with great defenders at the time, much harder than current La liga) and single handly win the league with Napoli. You are having a laugh, take off your Barca spectacles please

Oh and it's not impossible to take Messi out of the game, it was harder to take Ronaldinho out of the game than Messi. Now if Messi was to say go to Aston Villa and single handly win the EPL with Aston Villa, and then be the key man in winning a world cup for Argentina then we have an argument

Messi is a great football player, that's beyond doubt, and his skill is "magical", as some put it. Yet, he isn't the type of player who can pulls and drags his team to success. He just isn't a leader, and lacks charisma: sure, when Barca win 8-0, he looks great, but when Barca, or say Argentina (4-0 vs Germany, remember) have more trouble, he often has trouble staying calm and encouraging his teammates. Messi is a great goal-scoring machine which suits Barca, maybe even the best goal-scoring machine ever. But that just doesn't make him the best player, and sorry, but he's nowhere near Zidane yet (who by the way won a world cup, and dragged France to the final in 2006). Messi is fun to watch, but that just doesn't make him the best player ever

As Jazze stated let's just enjoy watching him play.... If there is the best ever then I'd pick Ronaldinho over Messi, but to me there is no best ever because every decade we shall have like 2 or 3 exceptional players that will rock the world of football and make fans even love the game more.... During the era of zidane, ronaldo, figo at that time I really enjoyed football then came Ronaldinho and completely changed the game now we got Messi killing everybody! As a result they all great soccer players but Ronaldiho remainn my favorite of all time...

Your all missing the point, there are people coming up with lots of different reasons for why messi is so good, it's barca, it's xavi and iniesta, it's this it's that. And nobody takes the time to consider his individual greatness, his incredible solo runs, his amazing vision and assists, his ability to control the pace of a game, his ability to change the game at any minute if he wants to, his ability to take on players from any dead ball situation. Yes he's on a great team, but do people ever ask what would barca be without messi. He has been involved in 80% of their goals, and will be there all time top goal scorer at 24. The problem is is that people spend so much time trying to prove why he's not the greatest that they overlook all the reasons he could become the greatest. His form for Argentina may not be as good as barca, but be fair to him, he plays a completely different role in Argentina, messi is argentinas xavi, anything good that happens on the pitch goes through him. So for me as far as individual talent he could become the greatest ever. But hey as I said lets just enjoy it

And I honestly think to this day to say that Maradonna won the world cup sinle handadley is an insult to every other player on that Argentina team, who by the way had some decent players, and where much tighter as a team than the current argentinian team. Maradonna did not go out on the pitch and play 1 against 11, he had other team mates, who scored goals and set him up diego up for goals. What I would say is that Maradonna became a leader during that tournament and inspired his team mates, but he didn't win it by himself

I honestly don't understand the point of this argument. I'm sorry, but you cannot pick a "greatest ever".... It's a matter of opinion, and no amount of highlight reels will prove who was a "better" footballer. Messi is incredible, so was Maradona, so was Zidane, so was Ronaldinho, and so on. Trying to prove any sort of point here is completely irrelevant anyway, as your point will not make any difference in the world of football. If your a fan, watch the game and support, but making claims that your favorite footballer is the best ever is childish, imo, because the state of world football changes over the years, and those who can adapt to the "modern game" and inspire/change it, will be remembered as phenomenal players. That's all

Don't hate him man just because your a madrid fan, be glad your around to see such an incredible talent, I mean as a barca fan I can appreciate ronaldos talent even if I do believe he's not better than messi, but I still I know he's a great player, and is good to watch

Don't you just love honest Real Madrid fans - I respect them folks. Believe me sometimes I hate when Ronaldo scores so much in a game, Iam always at the edge of my chair at those moments crossing my hands hoping he doesn't - but you just can't help it because he is good

I don't know why people actually thought santos had a chance against barcelona. Well actually I do know, its because they don't watch south american football. All they do is read the retarted papers that talk about this young brasilian kid every freaking day "neymar's new baby, Neymar's new hair style, Neymar's new way of taking a s**t. " they totally blew him out of proportion. Reality is Santos is not the best South American team. They struggled through the entire cup (libertadores) and they were very lucky on the last 4 games. But what I also have to accept is that the only reason they barely won those games is Neymar. The kid is out of this world. I know that if he goes to Europe within a few months he will become one of the best in the world...

After the match it was clear Neymar was hut emotionally (felt bad for the poor guy). Cesc, iniesta, xavi+messi pretty much made santos look like a high school soccer team. Neymar needs to come to the epl, arsenal preferred were he can get use to tough matches

To those of you saying this "proves" Messi is far better than Neymar, you're being ridiculous. If they had swapped places for this match, I'm not too sure the scoreline would have been very different. Barcelona has one of the strongest--probably the strongest--midfields in the world. To draw conclusions about a player based on his team's performance ignores the fact that a "team" consists of eleven players, not just the one. Just look at Messi with Argentina

Messi is and always will be a fantastic player. Arguably the best of all time. A player doesn't make a team, a team makes a team. So shut up about Messi in Argentina. The team is awful compared to Barcelona hence the success. Messi was Argentina's best player in wc2010 and in Copa America. Then again, what has Neymar done with Brazil, and Ronaldo with Portugal? Calling the best player in the world crap because his national team can't play good together is just stupid lol

Joshtch, your argument doesn't really stand up because I clearly remember Neymar having a couple of really good opportunities in that match and he was infective, but he does look like he has potential, but anyone with any common sense know at the present time nobody is on messi level, he is out on his own, so no point putting neymar in an unfair position with comparisons